Zulfiqar Ali

Iqbal Hossain

Executive Summary

The livestock sub-sector is an important sub-sector of Bangladesh agriculture. Its contribution to country’s GDP is about 2.5 percent. This sub-sector is also important from the perspectives of crop cultivation, food-security, poverty reduction, nutrition, and employment generation in the country. Poultry and dairy farming has also certain specific advantages over crops, fisheries and forestry, as they require less land and are least influenced by seasonality. It is, therefore, important to review the sectoral policies and management of livestock to achieve sustainable development of the sub-sector. In this context, the study tries to explore the barriers to the development of livestock sub-sector and suggests ways to overcome these in order to achieve sustainable development in the sub-sector. The study was mainly based on secondary data and published and unpublished reports and documents. However, the study attempted to collect some primary data through case study type primary survey.

Policy concerns in livestock development have a historical perspective which evolved over the decades. While the initial thrust was on government-directed development and control, the focus subsequently shifted to private-sector led development in the sub-sector. In the early years, the development of livestock was initiated by the government through policy emphasis on disease control, research and training which subsequently encouraged and motivated the private sector. The successive five year plans also emphasized on the development of the sub-sector for its contribution to the economy in general and poverty reduction in particular.   

Despite the fact that the livestock sub-sector is an important sub-sector in Bangladesh agriculture, its contributor to agricultural GDP is much less than that of the crop agriculture. It is even lower than that of the fisheries. While the contributions of crop and fisheries to agricultural GDP are about 56 and 23 percent respectively, contribution of animal farming (livestock) is only about 13 percent. The contribution of animal farming has also remained largely stagnant with a share of around 13 per cent of agricultural GDP over the last two decades or so, whereas, the share of fisheries has considerably increased from about 15 per cent in 1989/90 to about 23 percent in 2011/12. However, a disaggregated scenario of growth of livestock in recent period demonstrates satisfactory growth for poultry population (over 4.5 percent) followed by goats/sheep (around 4 per cent). The growth of cattle/buffaloes, on the other hand, is highly unsatisfactory and registering a growth of less than 0.5 per cent over the same period. 

Milk, meat, and eggs are three important products of livestock. Trends in the production of these three livestock products show an increasing trend for all three products. However, while the production of eggs and meat registered an impressive growth, the growth of milk production was relatively low. 

Regarding consumption of livestock products, it is observed that per capita consumption of all animal products has increased over the last couple of decades or so. The rate of increase, however, is not uniform for all products – for meat and eggs, the rate of increase is relatively higher, but for milk, it is lower. Between meat products, consumption of chicken/duck has increased substantially, whereas, consumption of beef has even declined to some extent during the same period. Significant differences are also observed between rural and urban in respect of consumption of animal products. Consumption inequality between rural and urban is higher for meat products, especially for beef, compared to other products, and the inequality is also increasing in recent times.

Regarding the production base and pattern of growth of livestock population, it is observed that livestock population (of all three main categories) declined for both the medium (2.50 - <7.50 acres) and the large farms (7.50 acres and above) between 1996 and 2008. The dynamics is, however, quite different for marginal and small farms (<2.50 acres). The stock not only increased, but also displayed impressive growth (36.0 percent for cattle and buffaloes, 28.4 percent for goats and sheep, and 14.4 percent for poultry during the same period). Moreover, for all three categories of livestock population, small and marginal farms continued to be the dominant group in respect of rearing and producing the livestock population.  While formulating any policy for livestock development in the country, this reality should be taken explicitly into consideration.

Exploring the marketing channels of livestock and livestock products is clearly beyond the scope of the present study. It is, however, important to have an idea of the marketing structures of livestock and livestock products as marketing structures and mechanisms play an important role in developing sub-sector. Shahabuddin et al (2011) presented the supply chain for meat and meat products which pointed out that the marketing structure for livestock is geared around its production characteristics largely carried out by the private sector, with the exception of some milk production marketed by cooperatives and a number of commercial poultry farms which market their own product. Most of the livestock and poultry products are marketed by farmers directly to local traders. The products travel from there through a series of intermediaries to the major consumption centres. In fact, a complex marketing system is involved through which live animals and poultry birds as well as their products are transferred from the farmers to the consumers. 

Projected demand-supply gap for livestock products is drawn from Shahabuddin et al (2011). As the study estimated, the projected demand for meat will reach 4.05 million tons, 4.37 million tons, and 4.72 million tons in the year 2015 under low, medium, and high growth scenarios respectively. The demand for eggs is projected to reach 9.71-10.36 billion by 2015 under alternative scenarios. Similarly, the demand for milk is projected to increase from 3.31 million litres in 2010 (base year) to 6.42-7.28 million litres in 2015. The same study also examined how the supply of these animal products would compare with rising demand through projecting the supply of livestock and poultry products for the same period. It was observed that livestock and poultry products grew at 5.56, 5.00, and 4.81 per cent for milk, meat and eggs respectively, based on data for the 1999-2008 period. Projection was made using these trend growth rates. Supply of meat is projected to increase from 1.11 million tons in 2010 (base year) to 1.41 million tons in 2015. Similarly, supply of eggs and milk are projected to increase from 6.09 billion numbers and 2.98 million litres in 2010 (base year) to 7.70 billion numbers and 3.91 million litres respectively in 2015.

 Based on the above projections, it is found that there would be a deficit of 2.51-3.37 million litres of milk, 2.64-3.31 million tons of meat, and 2.01-2.66 billion of eggs in the year 2015. It is therefore important to device appropriate policies to remove the barriers so that the sub-sector can grow to its full potentials and meet the future demand of the growing population of the country.

Access to credit is important for the development of animal farming in the country. As observed from data, use of credit for animal farming at present is quite small (only about 4.5 percent as against of 43.3 percent for crop production). Increased access to credit for animal farming is actually required for all categories of farmers including the poor and subsistence farmers, farmers seeking to expand beyond subsistence levels, and the commercial farmers. The poor and subsistence farmers dominate in number and they are also significant target groups for credit, particularly from the point of view of poverty reduction in the country. Microcredit is a major effort to reach out to this group. Farmers seeking to expand beyond subsistence levels face formidable problems with regard to access to credit. These farmers require credit along with support services to venture into commercial production. The formal financial sector is yet to develop appropriate practices to cater to their needs. The commercial farmers, on the other hand, have somewhat better access to formal credit.

Based on the reviews and analysis, the study identified several challenges that the sub-sector is facing. They include, among others, the following:

•    Wide yields gap between the traditional and intensive and semi-intensive farming;

•    Lack of availability of high-breed animals and also the lack of knowledge and technological know-how of maintaining the high-breed varieties;

•    Animal Diseases are also among the most important constraints to livestock development in Bangladesh. In fact, animal disease alone constitutes half of the causes of death of all livestock population. 

•    Policy and institutional reforms of the Department of Livestock (DLS) and its functional arms are of critical importance to induce changes necessary to meet the new challenges caused by globalization, trade liberalization and WTO regulations;

•    Quality assurance is a critical factor constraining future development of livestock; 

•    Lack of organized market for selling farm produce is an important problem, particularly for the smallholders in Bangladesh;

•    Inadequate coverage of animal health services;

•    Lack of space and physical security of animal resources; and

•    Apart from the constraints discussed above, low investment in livestock research and its poor management are matters of major concern also. 

In view of the above factors, the scope for developing the livestock sub-sector and for expanding the productivity of livestock animals and birds need to concentrate mainly on three elements: increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers; expanding commercial production; and ensuring better marketing facilities, especially for smallholders. In order to do that the following actions may be taken into consideration for the development of the sub-sector:  

•    Ensuring sustainable management of animal genetic resources, and emphasizing the localised nature of livestock production as well;

•    Improving diagnostic capacity and veterinary clinical and extension services, and ensuring these services especially to the smallholder and poor farmers;

•    Ensuring feed and fodder at affordable prices to the small holder and poor farmers;

•    Providing training to the farmers regarding improved animal farming;

•    Managing the processing and value chain of livestock products efficiently, and eensuring better market linkages, especially for the small-holder and poor farmers; 

•    Providing long-term credit at affordable rate to the small-holder and poor farmers;

•    Investing in research and development in the sub-sector, and improving the institutional capacities of agencies rerated to the sub-sector.